The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy

I'm a self-taught genealogist who's spent way too much time over the years piecing family trees together over the years....with a lot of success. I've fought getting involved in the DNA side of things for years. I'm not one who ever had an easy time in biology or the sciences...., and it just seemed intimidating and impersonal. BUT....I was up against a huge wall with one of my husband's family lines and I could either quit....or try DNA. I decided to take the DNA plunge....and after reading every page of this book, I'm ashamed that I waited so long to get on the bandwagon. This author makes things super simple to understand....and provides so many helpful illustrations that break down the information into understandable blocks powerful knowledge. What is even better? The DNA market is hard to understand if you don't know what you are doing....If you are confused about whether to go with Ancestry's test, or one of the products on FamilyTreeDNA or 23AndME.....this is THE BOOK. It'll help you invest your dollars in the tests the will be the most help....right from the get-go....AND understand the results!!! This book is gold. Thanks Blaine T. Bettinger. I was on Ancestry's DNA support forum asking questions....and another user referred me to the book and told me I could get it all right here. He was right.

This 240-page book is the most complete and up-to-date resource on genetic genealogy. While some material is too advanced for raw beginners, you will want this comprehensive book on hand as you work your way through the DNA testing process. Blaine clearly explains all the different DNA types and their individual inheritance patterns. Then he adds lots of supplementary information, including a great list of More Resources. Blaine naturally encourages readers to read his book from start to finish. But not many people read their vehicle owner's manual before taking their new car for a ride. Likewise, you don't need 100% of this knowledge before jumping into the exciting world of DNA testing. Furthermore, each topic will make much more sense when you have your own results to look at. Do read enough to understand the key points. For example, it's important to know that autosomal DNA passes on random selections of each parent's DNA. But you can get by without knowing exactly HOW recombination occurs. The subject of X-DNA inheritance confuses even experienced testers. So just skip that chapter until (and if) you encounter a situation where an understanding of X-DNA is needed. The book is available in both print and Kindle formats. I purchased the print version due to the many excellent tables and illustrations.

There are other books out there about DNA testing for genealogy, but this one is head and shoulders above. It presents up to date information for this evolving field, introducing the science of genetic genealogy in easy to understand chapters.The three types of DNA testing are discussed, sorting out the advantages and limitations of each. The author leads you through how to interpret your own results, and how to use available tools to get the most thorough analysis. He discusses ethical issues surrounding "surprises" in your DNA and searching for birth parents. Simple charts illustrate the points he makes.Whether you are a professional genealogist or just curious about your genetic makeup, this book will be an excellent reference source for many years to come.

I have been working with genetic genealogy for five years, and I highly recommend this book! It has everything a beginner needs to know, and has all the topics someone with more experience might need to review now and then. Charts, diagrams, and clear explanations. If you have taken a DNA test and want to get the most from your results, this book will show you how to do that!

This is a terrific book if you are considering getting a DNA test done, or if you are awaiting your results. The basics of the types of tests (Y-DNA, mtDNA, autosomal) are explained clearly, yet there is no sense that you, the reader, are being talked down to. The illustrations are excellent, and definitely aid in comprehending the points. Mr. Bettinger goes more deeply into the subject with each chapter, and you will come away fromreading this book with the basics under your belt.If, however, you've already tested and if you're already a regular reader of ISOGG's Facebook page, and/or the blogs of Mr. Bettinger, Cece Moore,Roberta Estes, Kitty Cooper, Judy G Russell, and others, and if you've already been working with some of your DNA matches, mapping your chromosomes, etc. -- you might find Mr. Bettinger's other book "Genetic Genealogy in Practice" (co-authored with Debbie Parker Wayne) more useful, especially as it features hands-on exercises (with an answer key).

I found this book to be a great intoduction to genetic genealogy. The choice of topics is good and the topics are introduced in a logical order. The content is deep enough to be useful but yet easy to understand.A minor comment is that a couple of sections already seem a bit dated (e.g. the sections talking about how to navigate websites from the top three vendors which have evolved a little since the book was released). Also I wonder why MyHeritage is never mentioned.A more important comment is that in the Autosomal chapter, somehow the centiMorgan and SNP units are not properly defined. Tools like GEDmatch require the user to fully understand cM and SNP thresholding and I feel like the book did not address that topic properly. I hope that this omission can be rectified in a future edition.UPDATE 08-SEP-2019:I gave my copy of the first edition to a family member and purchased the second edition.The second edition is definitively an improvement. MyHeritage is mentioned, and the sections talking about the websites from the top vendors have been updated.However, my major complaint about the first edition has not been fully addressed: in the Autosomal chapter, somehow the centiMorgan and SNP units are still not properly defined.So... hopefully the third edition will be the charm.

This is probably the best book on this topic currently available. Although written by an American, British readers should not be deterred from buying it for that reason.The book describes both the theory of DNA testing, in relatively non-technical language, the types of test available, and the type of information they can reveal. This is a complex topic, even for people who understand the underlying science, so this is not a book for light bedtime reading, but requires serious study. This is partly because some topics are not explained as clearly as they could be. On several occasions I had to refer to various websites to fully understand what the author was trying to say. For example, the fact that autosomes come in pairs is very relevant to genetic genealogy, but in many sections the author talks about them as if there were only one of each. Although this may have been for the sake of simplicity, I found this approach to be confusing rather than helpful.There are also a few errors that should have been spotted at the editing stage. There are two instances on page 90 where the author refers to Richard III when he means Edward III, and in the accompanying family tree Edward appears as Edmund. There are also instances where an explanation could have been made much clearer by changing a word or two. For example, on page 126, when explaining the inheritance of X-DNA, the author is describing how a man's daughter shares X-DNA with her paternal grandmother, but instead of using the word 'daughter' uses the world 'child'. The inheritance pattern of X-DNA is a complex topic, which can be difficult to grasp. A son cannot inherit X-DNA from his paternal grandmother, and the explanation would have been much clearer if the author had substituted 'daughter' for 'child'.One or two terms seem to be introduced without explanation, such as 'centiMorgan' and 'genome'. The book includes an introductory chapter in which several terms are introduced, and also a glossary, but neither of these terms is included. Nor can definitions be found using the index. One of the reasons I bought this book is that I had encountered the term centiMorgan on several websites and was expecting to find a detailed explanation in this book, but there is none. Overall, I would have preferred more information on more generic topics and less on the minutiae of the tests from the DNA testing companies.In summary, this is probably the best book available on this complex topic at the present time, but there is scope for improvement. Books such as this rapidly become out of date, so frequent new editions are necessary. This is the first edition of this book, so I hope that the next edition will be improved to the extent that it merits five stars.

This is a review of the Kindle version of this book. It is a well structured description of a complex subject, leading the reader from the simple basic principles to increasing levels of detail. It is supported by what are no doubt good diagrams and illustrations, but only if you can see them in colour and at a large enough scale. I can read the text on a black and white Kindle, but the illustrations need colour to be understood. On the Kindle app of my smartphone I can see the colour, but the illustrations are too small. The Kindle version is really only useful on a PC.Unless you want to use a PC, I suggest that you buy the printed version of this book.

Not an easy book. It was like going back to school and doing a chapter every few days. I wish there had been tests to make sure everything was understood. I still don't understand completely, however, this book goes a long way. It's probably one of very few text books on the subject. I recommend that you join his Facebook group as fellow enthusiasts will help with any queries. A book to read slowly over and over again.

I haven't found it easy to wrap my head around the process of recombination and chromatids but so far this this is the best book that I have read to give me an understanding of what's going on.X and Y chromosomes and mtDNA are relatively straightforward. It's still not easy (or at least hasn't been for me, but I believe that the author has made a good fist of conveying concepts.There are cheaper books and I thought hard before buying the Kindle version which is still expensive and on my iPAD (therefore in colour - I long since abandoned the Amazon Kindle devices) it has been more convenient than a book.As an aside, Genealogy books these days frequently contain hyperlinks and providing you have an iPAD I have found Kindle versions to be so much more convenient because I can load the Kindle App on my Desktop as well and very quickly bookmark all the hyperlinks in a sub-category using my favourite browser 'Brave'. I find Google's insistence on tracking me worse than annoying and have spent quite a lot on software to block and remove cookies.

Most genetic DNA books tell you about the different tests available but I also need to know how to record matches and determine the relationships of those matches. This has been the best book for this. That is why I purchased a paperback copy rather than borrowing it from the library.